China's Currency Reserves
Surge Amid Foreign Inflows

China's foreign-exchange reserves jumped more than $200 billion in 2004 to reach $609.9 billion at year end, as speculators betting on a rise in the local currency's value added to the effect of a widening trade surplus.

Last year's huge increase was the biggest surge in China's reserves in any single year -- indeed, it was bigger than China's entire reserves until 2001. The gain of $206.7 billion, almost half of which was registered in the last three months of the year, almost certainly will add to pressure on Beijing to...